Around Us

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, September 14, 2008

AMARILLO - Two people suffering from third degree burns were flown to the Lubbock Burn Unit after a natural gas pipeline exploded Tuesday afternoon in northeast Wheeler County.

The names of the injured were not immediately released.

The explosion, which is under investigation by the Wheeler County Sheriff's Office, occurred at 1:53 p.m. about two miles from the Oklahoma state line on County Road 28, said David Rushing, Wheeler County public information officer.

Workers employed by the Perryton business Gorman & Phillips Construction Co. struck the existing pipeline while using a trencher to install a new one, said Chief Robert Ford with the Wheeler Volunteer Fire Department.

Officials with Gorman & Phillips were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

After the explosion, a fire erupted as natural gas leaked out of the hole, Ford said. The pipeline was shut down and the fire burned itself out in about an hour, he said. Fire crews with the Mobeetie, Kelton and Allison volunteer fire departments also responded.

Ford said he did not know if the pipeline was properly marked. The ensuing blaze may have destroyed the required markers, he said. - Amarillo Globe-News

LUBBOCK - A Texas Tech student suspected of fleeing the scene of a fatal accident turned himself in to authorities Tuesday evening.

An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday afternoon for the driver police believe struck 31-year-old John David Elam last month and left him lying in the roadway to die.

Elam succumbed to his injuries at University Medical Center five days after being hit by a 2006 Dodge Ram pickup.

Police say the pickup is owned by 21-year-old Tech student Cameron Livesay. A Tech official confirmed Livesay's enrollment at the university.

Livesay was charged Tuesday with failure to stop and render aid in the fatal wreck, court documents show.

Elam was hit at about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 30 while walking north in the right-hand lane of the 1300 block of Quaker Avenue. When police arrived, they found Elam lying on the side of the road.

They also found a right headlight assembly at the scene, which helped officers identify Livesay's 2006 Dodge Ram truck, court documents show.

Police seized Livesay's vehicle late last week after he tried to get it repaired "as quickly as possible" at a local repair shop, according to court documents.

When police located the truck at the repair shop, it was already partially repaired. The truck was being repaired because of front right collision damage. The shop owner told police Livesay contacted him on Sept. 2.

The owner and a tow truck driver said the truck's hood had a large dent that went straight back from the damaged headlight area toward the windshield, court documents show. They told police the damage appeared consistent with a vehicle that had struck a pedestrian.

Other evidence also connected Livesay's truck with the one that hit Elam last month. A black bracket identical to the one found at the scene was missing from the truck, according to court documents.

Police suspicion was confirmed by a Texas Department of Public Safety Trace Analysis expert, who examined the evidence and said "without any doubt," Livesay's truck was the one that hit Elam, court documents show.

Officers also believe Livesay was behind the wheel when the collision occurred, supporting their theory with evidence and several witness statements.

It was unclear Tuesday if Livesay had retained an attorney. - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

AMARILLO - Evan Tanner, a champion mixed martial arts fighter born in Amarillo, seemed to foretell his death in the Southern California desert.

He wrote on his blog Aug. 16: "I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life. I've been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I'm going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment."

Tanner's writings proved prophetic. The 37-year-old Caprock High graduate was found dead Monday in an isolated area of the Palo Verde Mountains, said Lt. George Moreno of the Imperial County (Calif.) Sheriff's Department. Moreno said Tanner died during a solo camping trip and a preliminary report indicates the cause of death was heat exposure. Temperatures over the weekend were in the triple digits. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday and the results were not immediately available.

Tanner was an Amarillo native and a two-time state champion wrestler at Caprock. He graduated in 1989.

Former Caprock wrestling coach Jerome Stewart, who now is superintendent of the Canton ISD southeast of Dallas, called Tanner "an incredibly hard worker." Stewart was coach of the Longhorns' wrestling team when Tanner won state titles in the 167-pound weight class.

Stewart said Tanner each school day would run five miles from his home to campus, work out, shower and then attend classes. After school, he'd wrestle and then run home. Tanner went to Simpson College in Indianola, Ind., where Stewart had wrestled collegiately for three years.

Tanner entered the world of mixed martial arts in 1997, according to the Web site for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, considered the leading promoter of MMA. He began competing in "shootfighting" events, which combines kickboxing with grappling. He had a 34-8 professional career and amassed a loyal fan base.

During an 11-year career, he won the UFC middleweight title and earned a total of seven U.S. Wrestling Federation heavyweight championships. MMA features fighters skilled in various martial arts, including karate, boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling.

Friends of Tanner in his home of Oceanside, Calif., alerted authorities Friday when they stopped receiving text messages from him, Moreno said. A search began that day and a helicopter crew from a Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz., spotted Tanner's body about noon Monday, Moreno said. No foul play is suspected.

In his popular blog on Spike.com dated Aug. 16, Tanner wrote of his "insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration," and that the idea to journey into the desert came from a conversation with a friend about treasure hunting and lost gold. He wanted to find the deep reaches of the "untracked desert."

Tanner responded to concerns about his plans for a desert adventure in a post Aug. 27.

Still, any failure of his gear could cause a problem, he wrote.

Moreno said Tanner encountered searing heat during his trip to the rocky, arid terrain of the Palo Verde Mountains. Temperatures had reached between 110 and 114 degrees over the past several days.

Venturing in the desert without enough water can be fatal, Moreno said.

"You're going to dehydrate and eventually collapse," he said. - Amarillo Globe-News

Bristow, 18, stands accused of the March 13, 2007, shooting of Jonathan Henry McSmith, 17, who died five days later from his head wound.

Attorney David Isern will open the defense's case at 9 a.m. today in the courtroom of Judge John Board in the Potter County Courts Building.

Prosecuting attorneys Jim Yontz and Jenny Lively presented nine witnesses, including the defendant's former girlfriend, a firearms examiner, three investigating police officers and the pathologist who performed the autopsy on McSmith's body.

Estella Nunez, 20, of Amarillo said she was Bristow's girlfriend at the time of the shooting.

Nunez testified Bristow arrived at her house shortly after the shooting and told her he had shot McSmith.

"He said they were playing around with the gun and he had dropped the (magazine) clip and it went off," Nunez said. "He said he was going to get rid of it."

Jerek Brown, a firearms examiner with the Department of Public Safety in Lubbock, testified the gun recovered by police, a Raven Firearms .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, would fire without a magazine clip in place if a round was in the chamber.

Brown also told jurors ballistics tests confirmed that the bullet removed from McSmith's body during the autopsy and a shell casing found in the room where the shooting occurred were fired from Bristow's pistol.

The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. at a residence in the 100 block of North Carolina Street.

Sgt. Kevin Dockery, an investigator with the Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit, said investigators quickly identified Bristow as a suspect. About three hours after the shooting, Bristow called police on a cell phone from a van, Dockery said. The van pulled over and Bristow turned himself over to police and told officers they could find the pistol at a residence in the 4200 block of West 16th Avenue. - Amarillo Globe-News